Method of and apparatus for managing  disc defects in disc, and disc on which defects are managed

ABSTRACT

A method of and apparatus for managing disc defects in a disc using a temporary defect management area in the disc, and the disc, where the method includes recording in a data area user data; and recording in a temporary defect management area, which is present in at least one of a lead-in area and a lead-out area, which temporary defect information and temporary defect management information regarding the user data recorded in the data area are recorded. Accordingly, the method and apparatus are applicable to recordable discs and capable of effectively using the defect management area.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/663,981, filed Sep. 17, 2003, now pending in the United States Patentand Trademark Office, and claims the benefit of Korean PatentApplication No. 2002-61897, filed on Oct. 10, 2002 in the KoreanIntellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to disc defect management, and moreparticularly, to a method of and apparatus for managing disc defectsusing a temporal defect management area (TDMA), and a disc in whichdefect management is performed using the method and apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

Defect management is a process of rewriting data stored in a user dataarea of a disc in which a defect occurs. The data is rewritten to a newportion of the disc's data area, thereby compensating for the data lossotherwise caused by the defect. In general, defect management isperformed using a linear replacement method or a slipping replacementmethod. In the linear replacement method, the user data area in whichthe defect exists is replaced with a spare data area having no defects.In slipping replacement method, the user data area with the defect isslipped, and the next user data area having no defects is used.

Both the linear replacement and slipping replacement methods areapplicable only to discs, such as a DVD-RAM/RW, on which data can berepeatedly recorded and recording can be performed using a random accessmethod. In other words, the linear replacement and slipping replacementmethods are difficult to apply to write-once discs on which recording isallowed only once.

In general, the presence of defects in a disc is detected by recordingdata on the disc, and then confirming whether the data has been recordedcorrectly on the disc. However, once the data is recorded on awrite-once disc, it is impossible to overwrite the new data and managethe defects therein.

After the development of CD-R and DVD-R, a high-density write-once discwith a recording capacity of several dozen GBs was introduced. This typeof disc can be used as a backup disc since it is inexpensive and allowsrandom access that enables fast reading operations. However, sincedefect management is not available for write-once discs, a backupoperation is discontinued when a defective area (i.e., an area where adefect exists) is detected during the backup operation. In general,since a backup operation is performed when a system is not frequentlyused, such as at night when a system manager does not operate thesystem, it is more likely that a discontinued backup operation ismaintained discontinued for the night when it is stopped because adefective area of a write-once disc is detected such that the backupoperation is not completely performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a defect management method and apparatusthat can be applied to discs, and a disc having the defects managedusing the defect management method.

The present invention also provides a defect management method andapparatus that can manage disc defects even when a defect is detectedduring a recording operation, enabling the recording operation withoutinterruption, and a disc having the method.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a disc includes a dataarea in which user data is recorded, and a temporary defect managementarea that is present in at least one of a lead-in area and a lead-outarea and in which are recorded temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information regarding the user data recordedin the data area.

It is preferable, but not required, that the temporary defectinformation and temporary defect management information are recorded forevery recording operation in which user data is recorded in the dataarea.

Also, it is preferable, but not required, that the temporary defectinformation contains information indicating a position of a defectivearea of the data area in which corresponding user data is recorded, orcontains information indicating a position of a replacement area that isa substitute for the defective area.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method ofmanaging disc defects in a disc includes recording defect informationregarding data, which is recorded in a data area of the disc accordingto a recording operation, as temporary defect information in a temporarydefect management area that is present in at least one of a lead-in areaand a lead-out area of the disc; and recording management informationfor managing the temporary defect information as temporary defectmanagement information in the temporary defect management area.

It is preferable, but not required, that the method further includesrepeating the recording the defect information and the recording themanagement information for every recording operation; and recording alast recorded temporary defect management information and temporarydefect information in a defect management area that is present in atleast one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area.

The recording the last recorded temporary defect information isperformed during finalization of the disc according to an aspect of theinvention.

It is preferable, but not required, that the recording the defectinformation further includes recording information indicating a positionof a defective area of the data area containing corresponding user data,as the temporary defect information; recording information indicatingthe position of a replacement area, which is a substitute for thedefective area, as the temporary defect information; or sequentiallyrecording the temporary defect information in a temporary defectinformation area included in the temporary defect management area,starting from a start of the temporary defect information area.

It is preferable, but not required, that the recording managementinformation comprises sequentially recording the defect information in atemporary defect management information area included in the temporarydefect management area, starting from an end of the temporary defectmanagement information area.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a recordingand/or reproducing apparatus for use with a disc includes arecording/reading unit that records data on or reads data from the disc;and a controller that controls the recording/reading unit to recorddefect information regarding the data, which is recorded in a data areaof the disc according to a recording operation, as temporary defectinformation in a temporary defect management area that is present in atleast one of a lead-in area and a lead-out area of the disc, and torecord management information for managing the temporary defectinformation as temporary defect management information in the temporarydefect management area.

It is preferable, but not required, that the controller controls therecording/reading unit to record the temporary defect information andthe temporary defect management information in the temporary defectmanagement area for every recording operation, and, during finalizationof the disc, to record a last recorded temporary defect information anda last recorded temporary defect management information in a defectmanagement area which is present in at least one of the lead-in area andthe lead-out area of the disc.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a recordingapparatus for use with a disc includes a recording/reading unit thatrecords data on or reads data from the disc; and a controller thatcontrols the recording/reading unit to record defect informationregarding first data, which is recorded in a data area of the discaccording to a first recording operation, as first temporary defectinformation in a temporary defect management area that is present in atleast one of a lead-in area and a lead-out area of the disc, to recordfirst defect management information for managing the first temporarydefect information as first temporary defect management information inthe temporary defect management area, to record second defectinformation regarding second data, which is recorded in the data areaaccording to a second recording operation, as second temporary defectinformation in the temporary defect management area, and to recorddefect management information for managing the second temporary defectinformation as second temporary defect management information in thetemporary defect management area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and/or other aspects and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent and more readily appreciated by describing indetail embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawingsin which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording and/or reproducing apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate structures of a disc according to embodimentsof the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates data structures of the discs of FIGS. 2A and 2Baccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A through 4D illustrate data structures of a defect managementarea according to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates recording of data in a user data area and a sparearea, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A, 6B and 7 illustrate data structures of temporary defectinformation TDFL #0 and TDFL #1 according to embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a defect management method accordingto an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a defect management method accordingto another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain thepresent invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording and/or reproducing apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.1, the recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes arecording/reading unit 1, a controller 2, and a memory 3. Therecording/reading unit 1 records data on a disc 100, which is aninformation storage medium according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention, and reads back the data from the disc 100 to verifythe accuracy of the recorded data. The controller 2 performs defectmanagement according to an embodiment of the present invention. In theshown embodiment, the controller 2 uses a verify-after-write method inwhich data is recorded on the disc 100 in predetermined data units andthe accuracy of the recorded data is verified to detect a defect in therecorded data. In other words, the controller 2 records user data on thedisc 100 in units of recording operations, and verifies the recordeduser data to detect an area (i.e., a defective area) of the disc 100 inwhich a defect exists. After the recording the data in the predeterminedunits, the controller 2 creates information that indicates a position ofthe defective area of the disc 100 as temporary defect information andstores the created temporary defect information in the memory 3. If theamount of the stored information reaches a predetermined level, thecontroller 2 records the stored information as defect information on thedisc 100.

Here, the recording operation is a unit of work determined according toa user's intention or is a recording work to be performed. According tothis embodiment, a recording operation indicates a process in which thedisc 100 is loaded into the recording and/or reproducing apparatus, datais recorded on the disc 100, and the disc 100 is taken out from therecording and/or reproducing apparatus. During the recording operation,data is recorded and verified at least once. In general, data isrecorded and verified several times. Defect information, which isobtained using the verify-after-write method, is temporarily stored inthe memory 3.

When a user presses the eject button (not shown) of the recording and/orreproducing apparatus in order to remove the disc 100 after recordingdata, the controller 2 expects the recording operation to be terminated.Next, the controller 2 reads the information stored in the memory 3,provides the read data to the recording/reading unit 1, and controls therecording/reading unit 1 to record the read data on the disc 100.

If the recording of data on the disc 100 is completed (i.e., no moredata will be recorded on the disc 100 and the disc 100 is to befinalized), the controller 2 records the temporary defect informationand the temporary defect management information in a defect managementarea of the disc 100.

During reproduction, the recording and/or reproducing apparatus utilizesthe defect information and the defect management information in thedefect management area and/or the temporary defect management area inorder to access the recorded user data. While described in terms of arecording and/or reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, it isunderstood that the apparatus can be an individual recording orreproducing apparatus or a recording and reproducing apparatus.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrates structures of the disc 100 of FIG. 1according to embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2A illustratesin detail a single record layer disc representation of disc 100 having arecord layer L0. The disc 100 includes a lead-in area, a data area, anda lead-out area. The lead-in area is located in an inner part of thedisc 100, and the lead-out area is located in an outer part of the disc100. The data area is present between the lead-in area and the lead-outarea, and is divided into a user data area and a spare area.

The user data area is an area of the data area where user data isrecorded. The spare area is an area of the data area other than the userdata area which is the replacement area for a portion of the user dataarea having a defect. The spare area serves to compensate for a loss inthe recording area due to a defect in the user data area. On theassumption that defects may occur within the disc 100, it is preferable,but not required, that the spare area assumes 5% of the entire datacapacity of the disc 100, so that a greater amount of data can berecorded on the disc 100.

FIG. 2B illustrates a double record layer disc representation of disc100 having two record layers L0 and L1. A lead-in area, a data area, andan outer area are sequentially formed from the inner part of the firstrecord layer L0 to the outer part of the first layer L0. Also, an outerarea, a data area, and a lead-out area are sequentially formed from theouter part of the second record layer L1 to the second record layer L1inner part. Unlike the single record layer disc 100 of FIG. 2A, thelead-out area is present in the inner part of the disc 100 of FIG. 2B.That is, the disc 100 of FIG. 2B has an opposite track path (OTP) inwhich data is recorded starting from the lead-in area of the firstrecord layer L0 and continuing toward the outer area of the first recordlayer L0, and continuing from the outer area of the second record layerL1 to the lead-out area of the second record layer L1. The spare area isallotted to each of the record layers L0 and L1.

In the embodiments of FIGS. 2A and 2B, the spare areas are presentbetween the user data area and the lead-out area and between the userdata area and the outer area. If necessary, a portion of the user dataarea may be used as another spare area. Specifically, more than onespare area may be present between the lead-in area and the lead-outarea.

FIG. 3 illustrates details of the structures of the disc 100 accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, atemporary defect management area is present in at least one of thelead-in area, the lead-out area, and the outer area of the disc 100.Also, a temporary defect management area is present at least one of thelead-in area and the lead-out area.

In general, information that relates to managing defects in the disc 100is recorded in a defect management area. Such information includes thestructure of the disc 100 for defect management, a position of defectinformation, whether defect management is performed, and a position anda size of the spare area. In the case of a write-once disc, new data isgenerally recorded after previously recorded data when the previouslyrecorded data changes according to an aspect of the invention.

In general, when a disc is loaded into a recording/reproducing apparatussuch as that shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus reads data from the lead-inarea and the lead-out area of the disc 100 to determine how to managethe disc 100 and record data on or read data from the disc 100. However,if the amount of data recorded in the lead-in area increases, a longertime is spent preparing the recording or reproducing of data after theloading of the disc. Accordingly, the present invention proposestemporary defect management information and temporary defectinformation. The temporary defect management information and thetemporary defect information are recorded in a temporary defectmanagement area that is formed in the lead-in area and/or the lead-outarea.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the defectmanagement is performed using the linear replacement method. Thus, thetemporary defect information includes information indicating theposition of a defective area of the disc 100, and information indicatinga portion of the disc 100 that can be a replacement area for thedefective area. The temporary defect management information is used tomanage the temporary defect information and includes informationindicating the point of the disc 100 where the temporary defectinformation is recorded.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the temporarydefect information and the temporary defect management information arerecorded every time a recording operation ends. The temporary defectmanagement area includes temporary defect information #0 and temporarydefect information #1. The temporary defect information #0 includesinformation regarding a defect occurring in data recorded duringrecording operation #0 and information regarding a replacement area. Thetemporary defect information #1 includes information regarding a defectoccurring in data recorded during recording operation #1 and informationregarding a replacement area as temporary defect information #1.Further, the temporary defect management area includes temporary defectmanagement information #0, #1. The temporary defect managementinformation #0, #1 includes corresponding information for managing thetemporary defect information #0, #1.

If no more data can or is to be recorded on the disc 100 or if a userdoes not want to record more data on the disc 100 (i.e., the disc 100needs to be finalized), the temporary defect information recorded in thetemporary defect information area and the temporary defect managementinformation recorded in the temporary defect management information areaare recorded in the defect management area.

A reason for recording the temporary defect management information andthe temporary defect information in the defect management area (DMA)again will now be explained. When no more data will be recorded on thedisc 100 (i.e., the disc 100 needs to be finalized), the temporarydefect management information and the temporary defect information,which are updated several times, are moved to the defect management areaof the lead-in area, thereby enabling fast reading of the informationrecorded in the disc 100. Also, it is possible to increase thereliability of information by recording the defect managementinformation in a plurality of areas.

In an embodiment of the invention, the defect information recorded inthe temporary defect information areas #0 through #i−1 is accumulativelyrecorded in a temporary defect information area #i. Therefore, it issufficient to read the defect information from the last recordedtemporary defect information #i and again record the read information inthe DMA during the finalization of the disc 100.

For a high-density disc with a recording capacity of several dozen GBs,it is generally desirable that a cluster is allocated to an area inwhich temporary defect management information #i is recorded, and fourto eight clusters are allocated to an area in which temporary defectinformation #i is recorded. This is because it is generally preferableto record new information in units of clusters to update informationwhen a minimum physical unit of record is a cluster, although the amountof the temporary defect information #i is just several KBs. A totalamount of defects allowed in a disc 100 is preferably about 5 percent ofthe disc recording capacity. For instance, about four to eight clustersare required to record temporary defect information #i, considering thatinformation regarding a defect is about 8 bytes long and the size of acluster is 64 KB long.

A verify-after-write method can be performed on temporary defectinformation #i and temporary defect management information #i accordingto an aspect of the invention. When a defect is detected, informationrecorded in the defective area of the disc 100 containing the defect maybe either recorded in a spare area using the linear replacement method,or recorded in an area adjacent to the defective area using the slippingreplacement method.

FIGS. 4A through 4D illustrate data structures of a temporary defectmanagement area (TDMA) according to embodiments of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 4A, a temporary defect management area islogically divided into two parts: a temporary defect information area,and a temporary defect management information area. Temporary defectinformation TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2 are sequentially recorded in thetemporary defect information area, starting from a start of thetemporary defect information area toward the end thereof. Temporarydefect management information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, TDDS #2 are sequentiallyrecorded starting from a start of the temporary defect managementinformation area toward the end thereof. The temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #0, TDDS #1, and TDDS #2 correspond to temporary defectinformation TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 4B, a temporary defect management area is logicallydivided into two parts: a temporary defect information area and atemporary defect management information area, as shown in FIG. 4A.However, the sequence of recording information in the temporary defectinformation area and the temporary defect management information area isnot the same as the sequence of recording information in those of FIG.4A. In detail, temporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2are sequentially recorded starting from an end of the temporary defectinformation area toward the start thereof. The temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, TDDS #2 are sequentiallyrecorded starting from an end of the temporary defect managementinformation area toward the start thereof. The temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, and TDDS #2 correspond totemporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, and TDFL #2,respectively.

Referring to FIG. 4C, corresponding temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information are a pair of information in acorresponding temporary management information recorded in the temporarydefect management area (TDMA). That is, temporary management informationTDMA #0, TDMA #1, TDMA #2 are sequentially recorded starting from thestart of the temporary defect management area toward an ending pointthereof. The temporary management information TDMA #0 contains acorresponding pair of the temporary defect management information TDDS#0 and the temporary defect information TDFL #0. The temporarymanagement information TDMA#1 contains a corresponding pair of thetemporary defect management information TDDS #1 and the temporary defectinformation TDFL #1. The temporary management information TDMA #2contains a corresponding pair of the temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #2 and the temporary defect information TDFL #2.

Referring to FIG. 4D, compared to the temporary defect management areaof FIG. 4C, corresponding temporary defect information and temporarydefect management information are a pair of information in acorresponding temporary management information recorded in a temporarydefect management area, but the sequence of recording the information isnot the same. That is, temporary management information TDMA #0, TDMA#1,TDMA #2 are sequentially recorded starting from the end of the temporarydefect management area toward the start thereof. The temporarymanagement information TDMA #0, TDMA #1, and TDMA #2 contain a pair ofthe corresponding temporary defect management information TDDS #0 andtemporary defect information TDFL #0, a pair of the correspondingtemporary defect management information TDDS #1 and temporary defectinformation TDFL #1, and a pair of the corresponding temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #2 and temporary defect information TDFL #2,respectively.

FIG. 5 illustrates recording of data in a user data area A and a sparearea B according to an embodiment of the present invention. Data can beprocessed in units of sectors or clusters. A sector denotes a minimumunit of data that can be managed in a file system of a computer or in anapplication. A cluster denotes a minimum unit of data that can bephysically recorded on a disc at once. In general, one or more sectorsconstitute a cluster.

There are two types of sectors: a physical sector and a logical sector.The physical sector is an area on a disc where a sector of data is to berecorded. An address for detecting the physical sector is called aphysical sector number (PSN). The logical sector is a unit in which datacan be managed in a file system or an application. An address fordetecting the logical sector is called a logical sector number (LSN). Adisc recording/reproducing apparatus such as that shown in FIG. 1detects the recording position of data using a PSN, and when recordingdata on the disc 100, the entire data is managed in units of LSNs in acomputer or an application and the position of data is detected usingthe LSN. The relationship between an LSN and a PSN is changed by acontroller 2 of the recording/reproducing apparatus, based on whetherthe disc 100 contains a defect and an initial position of recordingdata.

Referring to FIG. 5, A denotes a user data area and B denotes a sparearea in which PSNs are allocated to a plurality of sectors (not shown)in ascending order. In general, each LSN corresponds to at least onePSN. However, since LSNs are allocated to non-defective sectors inascending order, the correspondence between the PSNs and the LSNs is notmaintained when the disc 100 has a defective area, even if the size of aphysical sector is the same as that of a logical sector.

In the data area A, sections 1001 through 1007 denote predeterminedunits of data in which the verify-after-write method is performed. Arecording apparatus records user data in section 1001, returns to thestart of section 1001, and checks if the user data is appropriatelyrecorded or a defect exists in section 1001. If a defect is detected ina portion of section 1001, the portion is designated as defect #1. Theuser data recorded in defect #1 is also recorded on a portion of thespare area B. Here, the portion of the spare area B in which datarecorded in defect #1 is rewritten is called replacement #1.

Next, the recording apparatus records user data in section 1002, returnsto the start of section 1002, and checks whether the data is properlyrecorded or a defect exists in section 1002. If a defect is detected ina portion of section 1002, the portion is designated as defect #2.Likewise, replacement #2 corresponding to defect #2 is formed in thespare area B. Further, defect #3 and replacement #3 are designated insection 1003 of the user data area A and the spare area B, respectively.In section 1004, a defect does not occur and a defective area is notdesignated.

The recording apparatus records information regarding defect #1, #2, and#3 occurring in sections 1001 through 1003 as temporary defectinformation TDFL#0 in the temporary defect management area whenrecording operation #0 is expected to end, after the recording andverifying of data to section 1004, i.e., when a user presses the ejectbutton of a recording apparatus or recording of user data allocated in arecording operation is complete. Also, defect management information formanaging the temporary defect information TDFL #0 is recorded astemporary defect management information TDDS #0 in the temporary defectmanagement area.

When recording operation #1 starts, data is recorded in sections 1005through 1007 and defects #4 and #5 and replacements #4 and #5 are formedin the user data area A and the spare area B in the temporary defectmanagement area, respectively, as explained with respect to sections1001 through 1004. If the second recording operation is expected to end,the recording apparatus records information regarding defects #4 and #5as temporary defect information TDFL #1, and records the informationcontained in the temporary defect information TDFL #0 once again.Thereafter, defect management information for managing the temporarydefect information TDFL #1 is recorded in the temporary defectmanagement area.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate data structures of temporary defectinformation TDFL #0 and TDFL #1 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 7 illustrates a data structure of informationregarding defect #i.

Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the temporary defect information TDFL #0contains information regarding defects #1 through #3. In detail, theinformation regarding defect #1 indicates the position of an area inwhich defect #1 exists and the position of an area in which replacement#1 is recorded. The information regarding defect #2 indicates theposition of an area in which defect #2 exists and the position of anarea in which replacement #2 is recorded. The information regardingdefect #3 indicates the position of an area in which defect #3 existsand the position of an area in which replacement #3 is recorded.

The temporary defect information TDFL #1 further contains informationregarding defects #4 and #5 in addition to the information contained inthe temporary defect information TDFL #0. That is, the temporary defectinformation TDFL #1 includes the information regarding defect #1, theinformation regarding defect #2, the information regarding defect #3,the information regarding defect #4, and the information regardingdefect #5.

Referring to FIG. 7, the information regarding defect #i describes apointer pointing to defect #i and a pointer pointing to replacement #i.In detail, the pointer for defect #i specifies the starting and endingpoints of the defect #i, and the pointer for replacement #i specifiesthe starting and ending points of the replacement #i.

Hereinafter, a defect management method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 8.Referring to FIG. 8, in action 801, a recording apparatus records defectinformation regarding data recorded according to a first recordingoperation as first temporary defect information in a temporary defectmanagement area of a disc. This process serves to manage disc defects.In action 802, management information for managing the first temporarydefect information is recorded as first temporary defect managementinformation in the temporary defect management area.

In action 803, it is checked whether the disc needs to be finalized. Inaction 804, if it is determined in action 803 that the disc does notneed to be finalized, actions 801 and 802 are repeated while increasingindexes given to the recording operation, temporary defect information,and temporary defect management information by 1. However, it isunderstood that other numbers can be used for the index to the extentthat the numbers serve to distinguish sets of recorded data.

In action 805, if it is determined in action 803 that the disc needs tobe finalized, a last recorded temporary defect management informationand a last recorded temporary defect information are recorded in adefect management area. That is, the last recorded temporary defectmanagement information and the last recorded temporary defectinformation are recorded as the final temporary defect managementinformation and temporary defect information in the defect managementarea (DMA). The final temporary defect management information andtemporary defect information may be repeatedly recorded so as toincrease the reliability of data detection according to an aspect of theinvention.

Also, the verify-after-write method may be performed on the finaltemporary defect management information and the final temporary defectinformation according to an aspect of the invention. If a defect isdetected from final temporary defect management information and thefinal temporary defect information, an area of the disc in which thedefect occurs and data recorded after the area having the defect may beregarded as being unavailable (i.e., the areas of the final temporarydefect management information and the final temporary defect informationare designated as a defective area) and the final temporary defectmanagement information and the final temporary defect information may beagain recorded after the defective area.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a disc defect management methodaccording to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 9, a recording apparatus records user data in a data area in unitsof data to facilitate the verify-after-write method (in action 901). Inaction 902, the user data recorded in action 901 is verified to detectthe existence of defects in any area of the disc 100. In action 903, thecontroller 2 of FIG. 1 designates the area having the defect as adefective area, rewrites the user data recorded in the defective area ina spare area to create a replacement area, and creates pointerinformation pointing to the defective area and the replacement area,respectively. In action 904, the pointer information is stored as firsttemporary defect information in the memory 3 of FIG. 1. In action 905,it is checked whether the recording operation is expected to end. If itis determined in action 905 that the recording operation is not likelyto end, actions 901 through 904 are repeated.

However, in action 906, if it is determined in step 905 that therecording operation is likely to end (i.e., when the recording of theuser data is complete by user input or according to the recordingoperation), the controller 2 reads temporary defect information #0 fromthe memory 3 and records the temporary defect information #0 astemporary defect information TDFL #0 in a temporary defect managementarea. In action 907, management information for managing temporarydefect information TDFL #0 is recorded as temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #0 in the temporary defect management area.

In action 908, it is checked whether the disc 100 needs to be finalized.If it is determined in action 908 that the finalizing of the disc 100 isnot needed, actions 901 through 907 are repeated while indexes given tothe recording operation, temporary defect information, and temporarydefect management information are increased by 1. However, it isunderstood that other numbers can be used for the index to the extentthat the numbers serve to distinguish sets of recorded data.

In action 910, if it is determined in action 908 that finalization ofthe disc 100 is needed, a last recorded temporary defect informationTDFL #i and a last recorded temporary defect management information TDDS#i are recorded as defect information DFL and defect managementinformation DDS in a defect management area (DMA). The defectinformation DFL and defect management information DDS may be repeatedlyrecorded several times to increase the reliability of data detectionaccording to an aspect of the invention.

Further, the verify-after-write method may be performed on the defectinformation DFL and defect management information DDS according to anaspect of the invention. If a defect is detected from those DFL and DDS,an area having the defect and data recorded after the area having thedefect may be regarded as being unavailable (, i.e., the area includingthe DFL and DDS is designated as a defective area), and the defectmanagement information and defect information may be again recordedafter the defective area.

The aforementioned defect management method may be embodied as acomputer program that can be run by a computer. Codes and code segments,which constitute the computer program, can be easily reasoned by acomputer programmer in the art. The program is stored in a computerreadable medium. When the program is read and run by a computer, thedefect management method according to the present invention is performedby the computer. Here, the computer-readable medium may be a magneticrecording medium, an optical recording medium, a carrier wave mediumfirmware or other recordable medium.

While not required in all aspects, it is understood that the controller2 can be computer implementing the method using the computer programencoded on a computer readable medium. The computer can be implementedas a chip having firmware, or can be a general or special purposecomputer programmable to perform the method.

In addition, it is understood that, in order to achieve a recordingcapacity of several dozen gigabytes, the recording and/or reproducingunit 1 could include a low wavelength, high numerical aperture type unitusable to record dozens of gigabytes of data on the disc 100. Examplesof such units include, but are not limited to, those units using lightwavelengths of 405 nm and having numerical apertures of 0.85, thoseunits compatible with Blu-ray discs, and/or those units compatible withAdvanced Optical Discs (AOD).

As described above, the present invention provides disc defectmanagement that is applicable to discs. According to an aspect of thepresent invention, a temporary defect information area is present in alead-in area and/or a lead-out area, so that defect information can beaccumulatively recorded. Also, during finalization of a disc, only lastrecorded temporary defect information is read from a temporary defectmanagement area and is recorded in a defect management area, therebyenabling efficient use of the defect management area. Accordingly, it ispossible to record user data on even a write-once disc while performingdefect management, thereby more stably backup operations can beperformed without interruptions.

While described in terms of a write-once disc, it is understood that themethod can be used with rewritable media or where the medium haswrite-once and rewritable portions.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents.

1. A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for use with a write-oncestorage medium having a data area and a temporary defect management areain at least one of a lead in and/or a lead out area, the apparatuscomprising: a recording/reading unit that records data on and/or readsdata from the data area of the write-once storage medium; and acontroller that controls the recording/reading unit to read defectinformation and defect management information from a defect managementarea which is present in at least one of the lead-in area and/or thelead-out area of the write-once storage medium, wherein the defectinformation is a last recorded temporary defect information in atemporary defect management area and the defect management informationis a last recorded temporary defect management information in thetemporary defect management area, and the temporary defect informationcomprises a position of a defective area of the data area and a positionof a replacement area for replacing the defective area, and thetemporary defect management information comprises information on aposition of the temporary defect information as management informationfor managing the temporary defect information.